Stay & Play Group Volunteers

Home-Start Portsmouth is a voluntary organization which offers free support to families with at least one child under 5 in the PO1 - PO6 area. It works in partnership with other agencies and organizations to give children the best start in life that is possible, including a Ready for School programme and parent mentoring. 

Stay & Play groups are facilitated by volunteers in Family Hubs across the city. Volunteers plan and deliver a variety of engaging activities for families and their children, encouraging play and social interaction.

Depending on the Family Hub you volunteer in, your role will include some of the following:

- Planning group activities and engaging with the coordinator to access resources.

- Obtain feedback from families attending the group to build into on-going planning.

- Setting up/pack away the venue.

- Welcoming and engaging with the children and parents and carers that visit the group/hub.

- A willingness to be involved in the children's activities.

- Helping maintain the cleanliness of the equipment used by families.

- Assisting in the completion of relevant paperwork/registrations.

- Take appropriate action should any safeguarding situations arise.

- Maintaining and promoting the values and boundaries of the Family Hub.

- Supporting workplace induction for new volunteers.

- Report any environmental concerns to frontline reception staff.

About the organisation

Home-Start Portsmouth is a voluntary organization which offers free support to families with a least one child under 5 in the PO1 - PO6 area. It works in partnership with other agencies and organizations to give children the best start in like that is possible, including a Ready for School programme and parent mentoring. We have a number of volunteer roles available.

Process:

You will need an account to register your interest for this role. Once you have registered your interest you will receive an automatic email with next steps. If you have not received this in a couple of hours, please do get in touch as it may not have registered (volunteering@hiveportsmouth.org.uk). 

You will need to respond to the "Criteria Check" email to progress with this role. 

Please check your junk email folder in case any emails end up there.  Friendly reminder that the charities/organisations emails may end up here too. 

Skills

A volunteer undertaking this role must have:

- An understanding of the needs of young children and families.

- A willingness to lead groups as part of a supportive and successful team.

- A supportive and non-judgmental attitude and approach.

- Good communication skills.

- Satisfactorily completed relevant training.

- A satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

- 2 satisfactory references.

Volunteers in all Family Hub volunteer roles need to be positive, committed, reliable and willing to learn. Volunteers should be able to commit to a minimum of 2 hours per week. In addition you will be required to access supervision and training required for the role.